Well I got another chapter for you all hope you enjoy.
Life is really crazy for me at the moment with my job demanding even more time than I´m sometimes comfortable with but that is just how life goes sometimes ;)
Big thank you goes out to my Beta Killroy122496 for his help with the story ;)
There is always something in the past that will cost you in the future
Chapter 22: Consequences of one's Actions
The massive port of the San Francisco naval academy had seen its fair share of things but now it was the gathering port for a special task force that was created for one purpose and one only.
It has been over ten months by now since an absolutely massive fleet had taken control of all of the international shipping routes forcing the world's navies to stay in port or risk their ships getting sunk without any way to speak with whoever was in command of the enemy fleet.
About three months ago the worldwide blockade had ended with most of the largest ships of the unknown fleet disappearing but the ocean was still not safe again as although the unknown fleet had become smaller they were now even harder to stop from ruthlessly attacking lone vessels on the high seas.
The worlds Security Council had come to the decision to build a mighty task force fleet to combat the unknown fleet which many had started to call the fleet of the rising sun as the only thing each ship of this fleet had was the same flag that had a blood red sun on a white background.
So far the port had a total of twenty ships at the piers with a few in the dry docks that were undergoing repairs, there was a group of five heavy Baltimore-class cruisers with three Cleveland- Light cruisers at one pier with four Ognewoi-class destroyers as well as two Gearing-class destroyers sitting close to the harbor exit and two Implacable Aircraft carriers sitting in the Richardson bay.
But there was not a single battleship in sight in the port but from the open ocean another group of ships was steaming at full speed towards the harbor, in the very front was a group of five Daring-class destroyers and right behind them came a group of three La Galissonniere-class cruisers in the middle of the fleet was a group of four battleships and two more light aircraft carriers and at the far back was another group of three Cleveland light cruisers along with five Gearing-class destroyers and another ten Fletcher-class destroyers covering the flanks of the fleet.
The first battleship was none other than the Yamato together with two Iowa class battleships following to either side of her but the last ship that sailed before the two aircraft carriers was different from all of them.
Not only was it absolutely massive but it was longer and wider than any of the other battleships it looked similar to a Montana-class except the turrets were different as each turret only held two guns but were absolutely massive.
The ship was a joined project of two schools where the plans of the two largest battle ships had been combined to form this naval giant which had been named the Yonaga.
The Yonagas armament consisted of four double barreled 51cm/45 Type 98 Cannons along with ten double barreled 127cm secondary turrets that were backed up by a staggering amount of 40mm bofors and other anti aircraft artillery guns of various calibers.
On the bridge of the Yonaga were only a group of five the navigation officer behind the rudder wheel along with two lookouts and of course the captain who was a Caucasian Japanese Male with short blackish brown hair in a buzz cut and sky blue eyes.
He was wearing an old naval grayish blue Admiral uniform shirt with a golden dragon sash across the middle, on his hands are grayish black combat gloves, black trouser jeans around his legs, and grey combat boots on his feet.
This seventeen year old man was Aito Nagisa Misaki the captain of the Yonaga who had been called upon as the only person qualified to act as fleet commander for the new task force.
Right beside Aito stood a Caucasian Arabic female with long fiery red hair and crystal blue eyes. She was wearing an old Japanese naval blue sailor girl shirt with a white handkerchief across the neck that has an anchor in the middle, a white skirt and blue short like stockings underneath the skirt, and naval blue combat boots.
This girl was seventeen year old Levinia Nilofer Munetani who acted as the deputy captain of Aito "Captain we have conformation to enter the port from the port authorities" Levinia reported as she looked up from her tablet.
Aito simply nodded at that "Good radio room message to all ships of the fleet. Begin operations of securing the fleet in the harbor" Aito ordered and over three hours later all of the ships had entered the harbor and had been stopped at their assigned piers.
Aito and Levinia left the Yonaga shortly after confirming that nothing went wrong when they pulled into port on the pier the two were greeted by two young men waiting near a car.
The first was a sixteen year old Caucasian Japanese male with short brown hair in a ponytail and oceanic blue eyes. He wears a dark blue naval shirt, brown trouser jeans with a silver chain on the side, a black and red biker glove on his left hand, and brown padded boots.
This was Kaito Akemi Misaki the younger brother of Aito and captain of the Yamato along with his deputy captain, the also sixteen year old Kuroshio Umiko Munetani.
Kuroshio is a Caucasian Japanese male with short black hair with a white Admiral cap on top of his head and red eyes. He wears an old Japanese white naval officer uniform shirt with a green dragon satchel on the side of his shirt, grey trousers jeans, and grayish black combat boots.
Kaito nodded to his brother before they all got into a simple green US army Willys jeep with Aito driving and his younger brother on the co-driver seat and their two deputy captains in the back.
As they drove out of the harbor Kaito continued to look around the harbor at the huge mass of ships that lay at anchor "You know big bro this might be the largest fleet you will ever command as I heard there will be another group meeting us once we set sail" Kaito spoke as they drove along the coast.
Aito had to sigh at that "You might be right little bro but desperate times call for desperate measures and the Rising sun fleet is still out there causing god knows what damage" Aito replied only for Levinia to speak up "But the only damage this fleet so far has caused is material damage sure there were a few light wounded crewmembers but they so far haven´t killed anyone".
Kuroshio nodded at that before looking towards the port as well "But even so the damage this fleet can cause is freaking the Security Council out that's the reason we all are here to stop them from causing any more damage as they cannot be reasoned with".
As much as Kaito knew that it was true he still couldn´t shake the strange feeling that something else was going on at the same time but for now they had to see what the Navy ordered them to do.
Hidden shrine on Mount Fuji same day:
Sekiro and Riya had stayed over a week with the shrine maidens it had only been two days ago when the other five emerged from the underground chamber but Akeno was not with them but they explained that Akeno still needed some time alone to recover.
Of course one of the shrine maidens brought something to eat to the small temple that stood before the waterfall but other than that there was nothing but today was different as Reimu had brought them to the shrine in the early evening.
What greeted them was a strange sight as Akeno was sitting on the terrace of the temple facing the setting sun but her clothes were different as she was wearing a traditional white Kimono with a black obi like belt around her middle with silver birds on it.
Reimu gave them a simple bow before she left towards the main shrine once more while Riya and Sekiro slowly walked into the small temple until they were right behind their lover.
Akeno had noticed them as soon as they arrived with Reimu but now was not the time for regrets "Hey there Sekiro and Riya sorry we have to meet under these circumstances" Akeno spoke her voice barely above a whisper and yet it sounded as if she was dead tired.
But the moment Akeno turned towards her two lovers they had to gasp at what they saw Akenos face had always been spared from the rough training Claire and the rest of B-company put her through but now it looked as if half of her face was completely burned.
Akeno smiled sadly at the look her two lovers were giving her "I know it looks very bad right now but with my powers slowly returning and the water here I will heal until there is no trace left" Akeno explained but a moment later the three of them were hugging each other just to show that they were there for each other no matter what happened.
It took Akeno over four days before all of her wounds had completely healed thanks to Asuramarus power and the water of the temple but in this time Akeno and her three sisters decided what to do next.
No longer would they sail on their own but Shirayuri decided to share her plans with her sisters as well and at first Akeno was absolutely against it but with a bit of convincing she finally caved in as well.
Riya and Sekiro were still not fully convinced that Akeno was ok as she still was easily angered but the moment the four Misaki sisters got onboard their ships again Akeno became the most relaxed person they had ever seen.
As the group of ships started heading away from Japan none of them noticed how on top of a cliff stood a single person watching as the small fleet headed out into open water.
The young women was a Caucasian Japanese female with long silver white and raven black hair in a hime cut and chocolate brown eyes. She wears a long sleeved red and white shirt with a silver moon on the left sleeve, a bright golden sun on the right sleeve, and many white and black bows in the shape of stars going down the center of the shirt, a golden and silver obi belt around the waist with a white diamond in the middle, red and white hakama trousers with jade green beads all around the trousers and decorated in yellow stripes with bamboo and flower shapes, long white cotton socks underneath the trousers and on both legs, and brown geta sandals.
"You have shown your worth to me Misariutski Aikara may you choose those that will bring the clan to its former glory with you once more" the woman spoke as the ships disappeared on the horizon "Now then I should pay a visit to those girls as well seeing as they helped me with this so much" the woman grinned a bit as she started to make her way towards Mount Fuji.
On the way the woman saw someone leaning against a tree that stood at the side of the road "How many times does this make Kaguya?" asked the Caucasian Japanese female with long silver hair which is tied into a large braid going all the way down her back and dark grey eyes. She wears a red nurse cap atop of her head, a blue and red yukata kimono which is covered with constellation patterns, a black obi belt around her waist, and dark black geta sandals.
Kaguya simply smile at the other woman "It has been a while since we have been here so just let me have some more time to speak with them Yukari" Kaguya simply replied getting a sigh from the woman "Then I shall accompany you" the woman simply added before following Kaguya towards Mount Fuji.
Akeno, Mitsuko and Kishiko had started their attacks on any ship they came across once more getting a lot of attention but this gave Shirayuri the chance she needed as she closed in on a student fleet of five ships with an escort of three blue mermaid frigates.
Thanks to the small size of her submarine she was able to approach undetected and once she was close enough she surfaced but only to throw a life raft overboard before getting into it and the submarine diving away.
Shirayuri's outfit was less than good looking as she had been awake for over four days and had drank and eaten the absolute bare minimum of what her body needed "seems I need to activate it again" mumbled Shirayuri as she flipped a small switch on a yellow box that was badly beaten up with several wires pocking out.
The yellow box was an S.O.S. radio transmitter and only a few minutes later Shirayuri turned it off again but she could easily hear the sound of the approaching ships coming closer until the exhaustion finally caught up with her and she passed out.
Onboard the Frigate Sashima:
Captain Mai Sakamoto had been very anxious about this patrol as they had gotten several reports that the rising sun fleet was on the offensive again but that was the moment one of the student vessels radioed in.
"This is destroyer Fubuki we have a S.O.S beacon signal not too far away from us requesting permission for a rescue operation" was the simple message Mai nodded towards her bridge crew "To all student ships we are now on a search and rescue mission for shipwrecked crew. Follow the Fubuki as they have the signal" Mai simply ordered and a few minutes later the fleet was following the small destroyer that had picked up a lot of speed.
But only a minute later another message came over the radio "Instructor the signal is breaking up the transmitter might be damaged" was the simple message from the Fubuki "Understood Fubuki continue with your search we will launch a drone to aid the search" Mai simply replied.
With the help of the drones infrared camera they were able to locate the lone life raft but when they finally arrived at the location the situation looked bad as the students of the Fubuki had launched one of their skippers and had found a survivor on the life raft.
The girl was dehydrated and didn´t look very well feed overall and the condition of the life raft also gave several more questions but before they could even continue to think about anything a report came in "Madam we lost the drone that was on patrol but before it went down we got this image" the drone operator explained handing a tablet to Mai.
Mai froze for a moment as there on the picture was a group of ships but not just any ships as the flag was none other than that of the rising sun fleet "get us moving away from them immediately but do not inform the students as of yet" Mai simply ordered and only seconds later the entire patrol fleet turned away.
The night was nerve wracking for Mai Sakamoto as the rising sun fleet almost found them but somehow they barely managed to avoid them unfortunately just as Mai went to sleep her cabin phone started ringing "What is it?" Mai asked exhausted.
"Sorry to bother you captain but the rescued girl has woken up and told us what happened to her" came the simple reply "Explain" Mai simply replied and so the medical officer on the other end did "Apparently she was captured by pirates that is until the rising sun fleet attacked and destroyed the pirates. But their captain seemed to have no use for her so they threw her overboard with the life raft and enough water and food for several days that was over a week ago" that caused Mai to gasp.
"Apparently the radio beacon was damaged and the girl spent days on trying to fix it but the most important thing is she is an exchange student of the Yokosuka naval academy meaning she is a student of the same school as our current students" the medical officer explained.
Mai simply nodded silently at that "After she has recovered ask her about which stations she manned on her ship before assigning her to one of our ships" Mai simply ordered before hanging up and falling into an exhausted slumber.
Back with Akeno and the rest of the fleet:
Akeno could not explain it in words but the only times she was truly at peace was when she was either with her two lovers or like now onboard her battlecruiser the Tsukuba.
She had been following the small patrol fleet that had picked up Shirayuri just to scare them a bit until she turned away from them allowing them to easily escape into the night.
"I hope you find something useful for us sis until you call me though I will just do what we have been doing" Akeno grinned as she picked up a radar contact of four not too far away from her and not even an hour later the serene silence of the ocean was destroyed by large caliber naval gun fire.
Back with Shirayuri a week later:
Shirayuri had to give credit where it was due the medic onboard the Fubuki was a terrifying girl despite her small size as she barely reached Shirayuris chest but right now she was onboard the frigate Sashima probably to answer some questions.
She had been waiting on one of the conference rooms of the frigate but with no one here she started to play around for a bit as there was a lone computer sitting nearby "Now let´s see what I can get from you" Whispered Shirayuri as she went over to the computer and opened up the side of it.
A few minutes later Shirayuri was sitting at the table again with no one the wiser that she had ever moved from that spot "Good God what is taking them so long I know they are slow but this is just annoying at this point" grumbled Shirayuri as another hour had went by with no one here to talk with her.
Shirayuri had finally enough of simply sitting around so she started doing some simple exercises well simple if you had the training she and her sisters went through but just as she got started the door opened with two women in simple white naval uniforms staring at Shirayuri doing pushups while standing on her hands.
Shirayuri simply went into a roll before jumping to her feet like a spring before stopping in a perfect salute "Good to see you up and about Miss Ashino please take a seat so we can begin" the woman who stood behind the first simply said so they all sat down "Now then Miss Ashino we know that you are a transfer student of the Yokosuka naval academy but there is no information to which school you where transferred to and neither is there anything about the ship that you were assigned to" the woman with the tablet simply began.
Shirayuri had to grin at that as it was all part of her plan "The reason for that is simple as I was transferred to an active recon patrol ship and our job was it to shadow the activities of the Rising sun fleet without getting detected but that failed miserably when pirates attacked us and killed most of my crew" Shirayuri explained gritting her teeth the moment she mentioned what happened to her fake crew.
The two women exchanged a look before they continued "By what you just told is it seems you were the captain of this special intelligence ship is that correct?" the second woman who was obviously the captain asked.
Shirayuri simply nodded at that "That is correct sadly all of the information we gathered went up in smoke when the rising sun fleet attacked my ship but they only attacked due to the pirates attacking first" at that moment Shirayuri stopped for a moment to scratch the side of her head "The strange thing was however that no matter what kind of modern weapon the pirates used the rising sun fleet did not take any damage whatsoever although we have the confirmed detonation of the warheads of the missiles and torpedoes" Shirayuri added.
The second women tipped something on her tablet while the other looked straight at Shirayuri "What happened to the pirates after your ship was disabled by the rising sun fleet?" she simply asked causing Shirayuri to grimace for a moment "The pirates were stupid enough to not only attack the rising sun fleet but the moment that girl came onboard it was a pure massacre" Shirayuri shivered a bit at that before taking a deep breath.
Shirayuri told them how a single person wiped out a group of over fifty pirates with ease leaving none of them alive aside from her and the rest of the story she had built around how she ended up in the life raft with a defect radio beacon.
They seemed to believe her for now and that was all that mattered to her right now the two women talked for a moment with each other before coming to a decision "Ashino Yamagi we have another group of ships joining up with us in several days you are to take command of the light cruiser Agano and meet up with the rest of a larger task force to hunt down the rising sun fleet that is all" the Captain simply said before leaving the room while the deputy captain got a few things in order for Shirayuri to take command of the light cruiser as well as report to her fake superior which was just a way for Shirayuri to talk with Akeno about how things were going.
Shirayuri spent a few days onboard the Sashima until the second group of ships joined up with them in total there were now five modern frigates, ten destroyers of various classes, two light and three heavy cruisers and one Shoukaku aircraft carrier.
Shirayuri had taken command of the Agano and had started getting to know her crew even if it wasn´t going to be for long but all the time she was commanding the Agano she continued with her real mission collecting as much information about the Blue mermaids from their servers as possible which was really easy as she had full access to everything and if something was locked away she took an even greater interest in it until she had unearthed so many dark secrets that she almost wanted to sink every single frigate in the convoy.
It had been over two months since she came onboard the Agano and became its captain but by now Shirayuri had no need to be here any longer as she had enough dirt on the blue mermaids and all of the access she could ever want when it came to their networks so she called Akeno over their secure bond giving her sister the location, heading and the exact number of ships in the fleet.
With Akeno onboard the Tsukuba:
Shirayuri had done wonders during the time with the Blumers unearthing so many dark secrets you might as well call them terrorists but for now Akeno had another task to complete attack the patrol fleet before it meet up with the rest of the task force and get Shirayuri away from them.
The enemy fleet was large and thanks to Shirayuris information Akeno knew exactly which ships she needed the enemy fleet had no battleships, submarines or battlecruisers therefore Akeno assembled a fleet of five battlecruisers, five heavy and five light cruisers, twenty destroyers as well as a group of twenty submarines and to top it all off she had two Taihou aircraft carriers.
And this mighty fleet was steaming at full speed towards the oblivious patrol fleet with Akeno simply waiting onboard the Tsukuba as she started to formulate a plan of attack.
The moment her fleet came within a hundred kilometers of the patrol fleet ten of her ships split off with the two aircraft carriers, three destroyers, three submarines and one light and one heavy cruiser as escorts while the rest of the fleet continued towards the patrol fleet.
The first strike would be carried out by the submarines and attack aircraft to scatter the patrol fleet and once Akeno found the Agano she would isolate it and attack with the Tsukuba while the rest of her ships kept the rest of the patrol fleet at bay.
An hour later with the patrol fleet:
Shirayuri knew that Akeno was close by but it still surprised her when over seventeen submarines attacked the patrol fleet along with over one hundred and fifty aircraft attacking any of the ships that was foolish enough to split away from the main force.
Shirayuri had ordered the Agano to constantly change course to avoid the submarine torpedoes but due to that her ship had fallen behind the rest of the fleet that was now getting attacked by a strong fleet of four battle cruisers, four light and heavy cruisers as well as a group of seventeen destroyers.
Of course her crew wanted to help the patrol fleet but Shirayuri got another report a moment later from the radar room "Enemy battlecruiser approaching us from our ten O´clock" was the simple message before the entire ship started shacking as Akeno turned broadside opening up with all of her guns.
Shirayuri gave simple commands to evade the fire but only a few minutes later the entire ship shuddered again and a report came from the engine room "This is the engine room we received a direct hit to our boilers we are dead in the water" came the panicked voice through the voice pipe.
Shirayuri contacted the Sashima but they couldn´t help them either of course the guns on the Agano continued to fire but with Akeno now right behind them they could only fire the one turret which was destroyed a few minutes later.
The torpedoes had been fired off already and with their rear mounted turret disabled Akeno had no problem to come onboard the cruiser to look for her sister so they could leave as Akeno had to suppress the strong urge to destroy the entire patrol fleet.